Campers are moving back to cotton canvas tents. While grouse hunting last week, I saw four or five set up and waiting for elk season.
I kinda miss the days of heading to a destination, setting up camp, and staying put to enjoy the area. We used to do that in the high lakes, but those areas seem to be “discovered” by the hordes. A favorite was a lake near Bend that had a healthy population of big brook trout and Atlantic salmon. Mostly flyfishers, no motors, but it’s now a different crowd. In our last time there, we had a lady dump her gray water through our campsite. Alas…I worked with a guy that went elk hunting in central Oregon every year with his buds. It seemed he was as in love with the ritual of setting up and hanging out in the wall tent with a wood burning sheep herders' stove. Getting his elk was almost secondary.
But the desert was mostly empty, as were the mountain areas (except for some small communities), and large swaths of Southern California such as San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange County, CA were agricultural fields and Orange Groves in those days.
It means that a majority of Americans (and Developed Nations) has lost connection with the land and the cycle of life.. . . I have often pondered what that has meant for us all.
It’s only a matter if time before REI is marketing a “wilderness boom-box.”It means that a majority of Americans (and Developed Nations) has lost connection with the land and the cycle of life.
Isn’t there also a ban on leaving equipment or supplies unattended for more than one or two days?This pattern is in the North Maine Woods as well. People decided that they want to always have the site when they come up so they just take it over. There is a 14 day stay limit but it has never been enforced due to lack of staff.